All Moncton schools face a boundary review

A review of all school boundaries in Monctonis underway as the District Education Council looks for ways to even out enrolment at city schools.

Tamara Nichol, chair of the Anglophone East DEC, says Ernst&Young have been contracted to help with the study which will look at the catchment areas for all schools in the anglophone system.

"We recognize that there are areas in our district that are growing and there are areas in our district that are not and so we have around 1,500 empty seats, so to speak,in a group of our schools," Nichol said.

Northrup FryeSchool and Evergreen Park School inthe growing north end of Moncton are both dealing with overcrowding issues.

Nichol says after requesting anexpansion toNorthrup Frye for the past two years and being rejected, the DEC no longer sees that as a realistic solution.

"We need to look at the whole area in order to do what's best for the school, especially given this fiscal, financial position the province is in ... and the truth is we do have room to change things, we have options."

The boundaryreview comes after the Parent School Support Committee at Edith Cavell School, which is less than 50 per cent full,sent a letter to the DEC requesting the catchment areas be looked at before any schools are closed or expanded.

PSSC member Natalie Davison says there is no record of a complete boundary review ever having been done.

"The boundaries that are set up for Edith Cavell have been the boundaries since I was a child in the '80s and we all know that the population itself has redistributed," she said.

Davison says it makes no sense to have schools with empty seats in the centre of the city, while money is being spent on portable classrooms at schools in the north end,which are overcrowded.

"There's no reason to be talking about closing old schools for the sake of opening new schools, you know we're talking a seven-minute bus ride here," she said.

Davison understands parentsin the north end may want their children to go to a "shiny new school," but she says Edith Cavellis also a great facility and she wantseducation dollars spent on teachers rather than buildings.

"In my opinion there should be regular boundary reviews, it's kind of surprising that there's never been one. How do we know that we're actuallyallocating our resources responsibly?"

Results expected in September

NicholsaysErnst&Young has already completed a similar review for another school district.

"They're going to look at all the schools in the city, so everything from Magnetic Hill right through toBirchmount, right through to EdithCavellandBessboroughandHillcrest, all of those schools, and seewhat our options would be that would best suit the needs of our district and our students."

The boundary review willbe completed in September, says Nichol, and no further sustainability reviews will be undertaken until then.

"It's not just boundary changes they'll look at, they'll look at everything, they'll look at new construction, they'll look at extensions, they'll look at transportation, they'll look at all of the different options because really everything is on the table at this point."

Nicholsays if boundary catchmentchanges are recommended, it would be up to Anglophone EastSuperintendent Gregg Ingersoll to implement them.

"I know he has committed to the north end schools that if boundary reconfiguration is an option he will talk to the communities about that before any final decisions are made," Nicholsaid.

"Nobody's going to come in and just say this is the way it is and too bad."

Nichol says the ultimate goal of the reviewis to ensure that the student population is distributed evenly, soall schools are being used to their potential and all students receive an "equitable education."

"Schools can offer morewhen they have a more full and robust student population, extracurriculars can be added,there's more opportunities for sports teams and after-school clubs when you have the population and it allows students to experience a variety of different things."